boxer backs me for Blackpool South
Blackpool’s star boxer is backing me to be Blackpool South’s next MP.
A former British light middleweight champion, Brian Rose runs a boxing academy from Blackpool Sports Centre where he takes 60 or 70 kids off the streets every night as part of his personal mission to tackle anti-social behaviour in Blackpool.
“Ten years ago you never heard about knifes,” he told me. “Now kids are running round with them. I hear loads of stories like this in my gym. Good kids who have come from good backgrounds are getting dragged into it. This is what Chris has been big on from the start and that’s why I jumped right on board with him.”
One of my three top priorities for Blackpool – as well as tacking the cost of living and fighting for investment – is to tackle anti-social behaviour with a return to neighbourhood policing and early intervention in places like the Brian Rose Boxing Academy and Labour’s new youth hubs.
“Chris got in touch a few years ago because he was trying to do the same thing with his politics as I was with boxing – improve the lives and outcomes of kids in Blackpool. He’s big on tackling the issue of anti-social behaviour which I just see getting worse and worse.”
Brian started boxing at age nine when his dad decided it would be a good way of tackling his behaviour.
“When I was a kid I needed that help. I was naughty – a bit of a mischievous child. I got into boxing and I’d like to think that I’ve come out quite well. Now I’m doing the same for other kids.”
He says the kids boxing at his academy learn discipline.
“Kids realise when they’re sparing in the gym that they don’t need to be doing it outside. It’s a way of them channelling that energy. We’re quite strict. We ring the kids schools and make sure the kids have been good and if not they’re not allowed back in the gym.
“Its only the way I was coached and brought up – with manners and respect – and that’s what I try and drum into my own kids.”
A father of three, aged five, nine and 13, Brian says his children have already had problems with anti-social behaviour, just while walking to see friends.
“It almost makes you want to move away from the town,” he said,, acknowledging how hopeless things have felt under the last government. “I love this town. I love where I’m from but what’s going on with kids and crime really worries me.”
But where Rose and Webb find they have the most in common is the fact that they have both chosen, instead, to stay and fight.
“It’s amazing what we’re doing at the academy but there’s so many more kids who need our help. I know that Chris will work with me to have a bigger impact and help me reach more kids.”
